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Two Leading Schools of Public Service – NYU Wagner and UCL – Announce Pioneering Joint Global Executive MPA

April 29, 2013

New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the University College London School of Public Policy today are announcing an innovative new partnership to offer a one-year Master of Public Administration / Executive program in Global Public Policy and Management (Global EMPA). Applications will be available this fall and the program will start in the fall of 2014.

The joint program is a partnership of two leading schools of public service in the U.S. and U.K., giving students access to organizations, leaders, and experts in Europe, America, and beyond. The program is unique in that it focuses on both policy development and implementation and includes a global comparative perspective.

The Global EMPA program will equip experienced analysts, decision makers and managers in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. It will give these public service professionals the leadership, policy analysis, and management skills they need to design and implement effective, sustainable, cross-sector solutions to global challenges. Students will spend the first semester at NYU Wagner in New York City and the spring term at UCL in London. During the summer, students will work on client-based projects, known as Capstones, in locations around the world.

The integrated program is jointly headed by Paul Smoke, professor of public finance and planning, and director of International Programs at NYU Wagner, and Albert Weale, professor of political theory and public policy at UCL.

Professor Weale said, “More than ever, public policy makers require the skills to analyze complex problems and manage implementation to ensure that what seems good on paper works on the ground. Whether we are talking about setting priorities in health policy, delivering clean water to cities, or ensuring that the environment is well cared for, those in public policy must bring together different perspectives and different organizations in ways that are fruitful and effective. Our intention is to construct a program of intensive study that will equip leading policy makers of the future with these skills.”

Professor Smoke said, “The contemporary public service sector faces substantial and growing challenges—both global and local—that demand innovative and collaborative action. The NYU-UCL Global EMPA builds on the expertise and achievements of seasoned analysts and practitioners, empowering them with additional skills and the versatility required to deal with these evolving challenges effectively.”

About NYU Wagner:
NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service has been educating and preparing the world’s future public service leaders since 1938. Our students translate personal commitment into nonprofit, government, and private sector careers that impact the world's most pressing issues. Our faculty members conduct research that changes the way we frame, understand, analyze, and act on issues of public importance. We offer Master of Public Administration, Master of Urban Planning, Executive Master of Public Administration, and Doctor of Philosophy degree programs. For more information, please visit www.wagner.nyu.edu.

About UCL (University College London):
Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by our performance in a range of international rankings and tables, and its Department of Political Science is recognised as a centre for excellence in the field, ranked 6th in the UK in the 2008 RAE. According to the Thomson Scientific Citation Index, UCL is the second most highly cited European university and the 15th most highly cited in the world.

The School of Public Policy was established in 1997 to provide the bridge between UCL's world-class research and the policy-making community in Britain and internationally. Britain’s only school to specialise in graduate teaching and research, it offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, comparative government and public policy-making and administration. www.ucl.ac.uk/spp.